Lyra Catherine McKee (/ˈlɪərəməˈkiː/[1] 31 March 1990 – 18 April 2019)[2] was a journalist from Northern Ireland who wrote for several publications about the consequences of the Troubles. She also served as an editor for Mediagazer, a news aggregator website. On 18 April 2019, McKee was fatally shot during rioting in the Creggan area of Derry.[note 1]

Publication of her first book, a non-fiction work titled Angels with Blue Faces, was imminent at the time of her death.[19] It deals with the Provisional IRA killing of Belfast MPRobert Bradford. McKee sought crowdfunding to finance its publication,[4] and it was scheduled for publication by Excalibur Press.[20] She subsequently signed a two-book deal with Faber and Faber.[13][14] At the time of her death, her second book, The Lost Boys, was scheduled for release by Faber in 2020,[21] but remained unfinished.[20] It concerns the disappearances of Thomas Spence and John Rodgers from Belfast's Falls Road in November 1974. Faber and Faber had compared the work to that of Anna Funder's Stasiland and Andy O'Hagan's The Missing.[14]

McKee wrote on the consequences of The Troubles. She notably wrote "Suicide of the Ceasefire Babies", an article on teenage suicides linked to the conflict.[18][22] At the time of her death, McKee was researching unsolved killings during The Troubles in Northern Ireland of the late 20th century.[2] In March 2019 Irish Times writer Martin Doyle featured McKee in his article "Best of Irish: 10 rising stars of Irish writing".[20][23]

On 18 April 2019, McKee was shot during rioting in the Creggan area of Derry, Northern Ireland.[27][28] Violence broke out after police raids on dissidents with the aim of seizing munitions ahead of the Easter Rising commemorative parades due to take place in the area that weekend. The disturbances were centred on Fanad Drive. Youths threw petrol bombs and burnt two vehicles. Police said that a gunman then fired up to twelve shots towards police officers. McKee, who was on Fanad Drive and standing near an armoured police Land Rover, was wounded[29] in the head.[30] Mobile phone footage and police CCTV footage[31] shows a masked gunman, believed to be a member of the New IRA, opening fire with a handgun.[29] McKee was taken by police, in an armoured Land Rover, to Altnagelvin Area Hospital, where she later died.[29] Police blamed dissident republicans for her death.[29][32][33] The last time a journalist was killed in the UK was the 2001 assassination of Martin O'Hagan.[34]

She was survived by her partner, mother, two brothers and three sisters.[26]

British Prime Minister Theresa May called the murder "shocking and senseless", saying McKee "died doing her job with great courage".[29]TaoiseachLeo Varadkar said "our solidarity also goes out to the people of Derry and to the entire journalism community. We cannot allow those who want to propagate violence, fear and hate to drag us back to the past."[29] The President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, said "the loss of a journalist at any time in any part of the world is an attack on truth itself."[29]

The leaders of Northern Ireland's main political parties, the DUP, Sinn Féin, UUP, SDLP, Alliance Party and Green Party, released a joint statement condemning the killing of McKee and described it as "an attack on all the people of this community, an attack on the peace and democratic processes". They also said that it was a "pointless and futile act to destroy the progress made over the last 20 years, which has the overwhelming support of people everywhere". They further reiterated their support for the Police Service of Northern Ireland, who were the intended targets of the gun attack.[29]

The investigative website Bellingcat published an "Open Source Survey" of the shooting.[39][40] The same day the police had arrested two men, aged 18 and 19, on suspicion of involvement in McKee's murder.[41][42] They were released without charge the following day.[43] On 23 April, The Irish News published an article claiming that the New IRA had admitted responsibility for the killing. The group stated that McKee wasn't the objective of the attack and offered its apologies to McKee's family and partner.[35][44] On the same day police arrested a 57-year-old woman in connection with the murder; she was later released unconditionally.[45]

On 25 April, the crime prevention charity Crimestoppers offered a reward of up to £10,000 for information leading to the conviction of those responsible for the killing.[46] On 1 May the PSNI confirmed it would offer anonymity to any witnesses who came forward with information.[47]

^"News: Lyra McKee". Private Eye (1495). May 2019. p. 6. Lyra McKee [...] got an early break when she had a story published in Private Eye aged just 18. [...] It was the sort of story an experienced journalist twice her age would have been proud of, and a sign of the impressive things to come before her career was so tragically curtailed.